Fraser Hunter, graduate of the Royal Military College, Kingston, served first in India and China with the Bombay Lancers before joining the Survey of India and doing secretive work for the British Foreign Office.

During the First World War and back in uniform again he was first Chief of Staff to the South Persia Rifles, then onto St Petersburg at the height of the Revolution. Following his escape across Siberia and onto New York and then the Western Front, he joined the Persian Cossacks in their campaign against the Bolsheviks.

Back in the Survey and before retirement and politics in...